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DEI and flexibility have been scrapped by recently elected US President Donald Trump, leaving many to ponder whether the same procedure may soon reach Aussie shores.
It didn’t take Donald Trump long to stoke up workplace discourse by signing executive orders on day one that confirmed a return-to-office mandate for all federal workers and the scrapping of various diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies that have seen some federal workers who fit the DEI-hire description placed on leave.
Despite the speed of these decisions, they should come as no surprise as Trump campaigned on dismantling DEI in both the federal government and other avenues such as the military. This anti-DEI sentiment has grown exponentially over the past year, with various organisations in Australia and abroad seemingly dumping their diversity and inclusion policies.
With this anti-DEI and flexibility rhetoric being peddled by business leaders like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the sense is growing that these once-revered policies now have an expiry date.
Neha Madhok, racial justice advocate and former co-founder and chief executive at Democracy in Colour, argued that the weaponisation of DEI is dangerous.
“Diversity and equity initiatives are complex, and it’s important that we are looking at who is calling for the end to DEI and why. We should be questioning what they have to gain from this,” Madhok said.
“On the employer side, DEI can and has been weaponised to quiet staff when they raise legitimate issues. Like anything, it can become death by excruciating process where the employee is pushed out of the organisation.”
“DEI doesn’t have an inherent justice element at its core. More women or people of colour on boards isn’t the complete solution to systemic oppression. When the oppressed become perpetrators, the system continues; it just has a different face.”
“However, DEI can be powerful if there is a true commitment to justice. There are organisations that can and do champion diversity in their ranks, and it’s all about having a bottom-up approach.”
Although pushback against these changes has been swift – the support of the decision to scrap these “woke” policies has been large. As reported by Women’s Agenda, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has coined this support as the “anti-woke revolution”, a theme that Dutton argued is crucial in the Australian workplace.
“I think there’s just a point where people are fed up. They’re pushing back and saying, ‘well, why am I being overlooked at work for a job or three jobs running when I’ve got a partner at home, and she’s decided to stay at home with three young kids, and I want a promotion at work so that I can help pay the bills at home’ and so I think all of that has morphed,” said Dutton on podcast speaking to business leader Mark Bouris.
Dutton believed a lot of CEOs across Australian organisations are too afraid to speak up against “wokeness”, which he deemed is a level of “weakness that hurts the country.”
“I mean, a lot of CEOs who are publicly listed companies, who have got HR and marketing people saying to them, don’t enter into these debates,” Dutton said.
“Whereas a generation ago, the CEOs of BHP or Coles or Myers or the big sort of iconic brands felt an obligation to be on the front page of the [Financial Review] advocating for tax change or for industrial relations reform, or for the workplace.”
“Now, they only feel that they can comment in support of some of the work causes because their marketing people are telling them that will get them greater popularity online again. I just think it’s a level of weakness that doesn’t serve our country’s best interests.”
Along with this sentiment, Dutton has already noted his plans to roll back workplace policies that offer employees better flexibility.
One example is the Right to Disconnect, which has been in place since 26 August 2024 for non-small businesses, offering employees the right to refuse, monitor, read or respond to contact (or attempted contact) outside of their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable.
Dutton has sworn to repeal these laws if he is successful in the upcoming federal election, something that Associate Professor Nathan Eva, from the department of management at Monash Business School, believes would be fruitless in the long term for businesses.
“We have already seen how CEOs are pandering to President Trump, rather than standing up to him, and changing their policies to align with his outdated views. I worry that the progress we have made to make Australia a fairer and equitable society will decline if a series of copy-cat-leaders emerge, putting their own needs above what is best for the community,” Eva said.
“This might mean that while a few leaders might benefit short term from an authoritarian leadership style, there will be wellbeing impacts on employees, medium-term performance impacts on organisations, and long-term equity impacts on the community.”
“I would hope that if we do have a Dutton government, his cabinet would see the benefit of a lot of the flexible working policies [in place], and that [his cabinet] would be able to help him make an informed decision and research-based decision that would allow a lot more of these flexible working policies to continue and possibly even expand.”
“We do know that they are beneficial for organisations, for employees, and for customers.”
In terms of the ever-increasing anti-DEI discourse, Eva hopes that Aussie businesses take a step back and review the benefits that these policies can offer.
“I hope that Australian businesses realise the power of diversity and the creativity, performance, innovation, and positive culture that it gives us within our organisations.”
“I also hope that they realise that the talent pool coming out of our universities is incredibly diverse, and by cutting off these types of programs, they’re signalling to potential employees that they are not a safe place to work, they’re not an inclusive place to work, and they’re going to find very quickly that they’re not going to get the level of talent coming through the door that they have in the past,” Eva said.
With the campaign trail for both political leaders beginning to ramp up, workplace issues will be a focal point for incentivising voters, drawing organisations and business leaders into the political firing line. Dr Mariano (Pitòsh) Heyden, from Monash Business School, believes it’s a pivotal opportunity for leaders to stand firm on their values.
“We are experiencing a radical polarisation in the political environment, which has already seeped its way into the Australian social narrative,” Heyden said.
“Australian business leaders cannot stand by idly. There will be pressure for them to speak up to help their workforce make sense of a complex environment. Polarising political environments will reveal the true core values of our (business) leaders,”
Kace O'Neill
Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.
